Wound care NPs?

APN2014 · Jun 18, 2015

I am a wound care NP. Love it. I work for a surgeon, so I also get to go scrub in the OR for wound debridements and grafting. Best job ever.

ThinkerBelleRN, BSN, RN · Jun 28, 2015

How does a nurse become a wound care APN or a CNS in wound care? What are the pathways?

mommy.19, MSN, RN, APRN · Jun 30, 2015

The consensus model for APRN licensure has made it to where all APRNs are educated and certified in a population (check out ncbsn.org for more info). For example, I'm in an adult/gero CNS program and that is the population I will be able to see when I am certified. After certification in a population, APRNs can go on to specialize in a sub-specialty or focus, which may or may not be a certification at an advanced practice level (I'm a WOCN and will take the CWCN-AP exam after I take CNS boards, but my state governs which exams it accepts in order to grant advanced practice authority).

Lize321 · Jul 23, 2015

APN2014,

I am interested in pursuing a career as a wound care NP. What are the pros and cons for you? Your biggest challenge. I also wanted to get an idea of a typical day for you such as how many patients you see, how many consults you get, typical schedule (5 days a week or 3 12hr shifts) etc? Thanks so much for your time.

Lize

APN2014 · Jul 23, 2015

Pros: I'm never bored, because I love what I'm doing. You typically can earn more than working in family practice. Less charting. Usually a M-F schedule.

Cons: More and more chronic wounds from diabetes, vascular, arterial, and pressure ulcers. You really have to know what tests to order/interpret, as a new provider that is challenging, but do able if you're willing to put in the extra time. Many repeat patients...lots of non-compliance. These are very needy patients. Almost daily phone calls for this and that.

I see anywhere from 18-24 patients in a day. I work 9-10 hours a day M-F. I get consulted about 3 times a day for patients admitted for cellulitis,abscess, and all kinds of wounds, especially non healING surgical wounds.

cecej435 · Jul 23, 2015

Pros: I'm never bored, because I love what I'm doing. You typically can earn more than working in family practice. Less charting. Usually a M-F schedule.
Cons: More and more chronic wounds from diabetes, vascular, arterial, and pressure ulcers. You really have to know what tests to order/interpret, as a new provider that is challenging, but do able if you're willing to put in the extra time. Many repeat patients...lots of non-compliance. These are very needy patients. Almost daily phone calls for this and that.
I see anywhere from 18-24 patients in a day. I work 9-10 hours a day M-F. I get consulted about 3 times a day for patients admitted for cellulitis,abscess, and all kinds of wounds, especially non healING surgical wounds.

What's a reasonable salary for this kind of work? I'm also looking into doing this in the future.

APN2014 · Jul 24, 2015

Depends what state your in and who you work for. If you work for a family physician the pay will be less, because of malpractice. If you work for a surgeon the pay will be more, because there are more things you can do that can be billed for and..a surgeon is already use to paying high malpractice. I started out at close to 6 figures as a new grad..but I had been a wound care RN previously. There are wound care NP's who do only hospital rounds, but make significantly less because they don't do surgical debridements, skin substitutes, compression, etc...so depends which wound care route you take. I do debridements and all of the above plus hyperbarics. You just can't do it for the salary, cause it shows in your healing rates. If you are doing it for the salary..you're in the wrong field.

ericseitz · Jul 24, 2015

I'm only passion was more prevalent all around, perhaps health outcomes would improve across the board.